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The Many Antics of John Macafee, Bitcoin’s Hero

Macafee has had quite a busy week… Fresh off of his “Babe Ruth” like moment last week announcing that Bitcoin will hit $15,000 by June 12th (which if this turns out true, Bitcoin has some work to do). This was only the beginning of what’s becoming a rather epic streak of outlandish statements & Announcements from the 72-year-old die hard Crypto Enthusiast.

For those of you unaware, John Macafee, is a famous technology entrepreneur. He is most well known for his role in the development of what is said to be the first antivirus software to ever be released and then its continued success from the later versions. The software was branded and marketed with his last name until Intel acquired them and rebranded in 2014.

John has also been one of Bitcoin’s earliest most staunch supporters. Macafee, a Libertarian, has often been very public with his political and economic beliefs, some of which include the legalization of marijuana and an end to the war on drugs, as well as countless criticism of both the banking system and regulatory authorities.

Most recently has reacted to the stringent cryptocurrency reforms implemented by the SEC and many banks refusing to accept deposits from cryptocurrency accounts, claiming that they all have declared a “War on Cryptocurrency.” His reaction to this which is both kind of hilarious and sort of brilliant, well we can confidently say his heart is 100% in the right place. Macafee has announced that on June 25th he will launch his own fiat currency… nope not a typo, he is, he is creating a fiat currency that will be backed with Cryptocurrency.

The currency will be named “The Macafee Redemption Unit.” Beyond this, the details are still a bit vague at this point, leaving the public hit with this bombshell announcement and then only a few cryptic tweets to piece it all together. However, although many details are still scarce, we did get to preview the physical prototype of the MRU, the denominations include Mr. Macafee himself on the 1, 5, and 100, his wife and himself both on the 500, also Bitman founder Jihan Wu on the ten, Bitcoin Foundation founder Brock Pierce on the 20, and the notorious Bitcoin.com owner Jason Ver make his home on the 50. It is always so hard to tell just how serious Macafee is taking all of his actions and announcements, but on a symbolic level, this does show a glimpse of what a hopeful future might look like for HODL-ers everywhere. Where bank controlled, national currencies are no longer the benchmark for solvency.

Is that the end of the story? Not quite, Macafee managed to “trump” his currency rollout with an announcement last Friday (6/1) that he will be throwing his hat in the ring for the White House announcing that he will be running for President for a consecutive time in 2020. His 2016 campaign fell short when he failed to defeat Gary Johnson for the Libertarian ticket. He vows redemption in 2020 as he prepares to once again embark on the campaign trail to Washington. John is aware that this is not likely to work out for him, but he wants to make cryptocurrency awareness his main topic of concern and take advantage of the free publicity that presidential candidates receive. This is the generally accepted opinion for his presidential announcement anyways, however many people also made the same speculations about Trump’s campaign in 2016, so never say never.